Iran’s nuclear weapon threat

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanded in early November that Iran respond within days to the accusation that they are preparing to build nuclear weapons. She stated that the United States was looking for international support for more sanctions against Iran. This follows analysis by Emanuele Ottolenghi, of the Foundation for Defence of Democracies in Washington, that Iran is indeed making a nuclear bomb. His report states, “Iran’s nuclear clock continues to tick and the hour of reckoning may now be near. Tehran relentlessly pursues its nuclear ambitions while protesting its innocence .There is evidence of military activities connected to their programme, including efforts to fit a nuclear payload into a locally produced ballistic missile. Now Iran is installing new, more advanced centrifuges, which enrich uranium, in a new clandestine site built under a mountain . . . given its progress, it may soon be too late to stop them.”

There can be no doubt that Iran istrying to make a nuclear weapon. They have been testing, purchasing and designing all the elements required to make a nuclear bomb. This work can have no other purpose, it has nothing to do with nuclear energy development. However, Iran seems undeterred by this report and shows no signs of buckling under the pressure of sanctions. The fact is that this is evidently the work of God, Iran is being ‘stirred up’!

I will stir up the Medes

This has happened before and is recorded for us in Isaiah 13. This prophecy refers to ‘stirring up’ the Medes (Persians- i.e. today’s Iranians) against Babylon but it also has a latter day fulfilment. If you look at the chapter it will become clear that God’s Judgements will fall again as they did when the Medes and Persians conquered Babylon and this time it will affect the whole world. Verse 6 states ‘The Day of the LORD is at hand’ V. 9 ‘to lay the land desolate’ v10 The stars of heaven will not give their light. V.11 God shall ‘punish the world for their evil’. V.13 He will ‘shake the heavens’. V.17 He will ‘stir up the Medes’. And yet in this conflict in the Middle East Ch14V.1 ‘’The LORD will have mercy on Jacob (Israel)’.

Could we be seeing in today’s situation the starting of a chain of events which will bring about the time described in Ezekiel 38 when Gog, accompanied by many nations including Iran, comes down upon Israel and triggers the return of The Lord Jesus Christ? Israel, at present must feel very threatened. Fearful of a nuclear attack by Iran, she has warned that she will launch military action to prevent Iran developing a nuclear weapon as soon as Christmas. Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has warned of a possible Israeli military strike against Iran’s nuclear programme. He told Israel Radio that he did not expect any new U.N. sanctions on Tehran to persuade it to stop its nuclear defiance. Officials believe President Barack Obama would have to support the Israelis or risk losing vital Jewish-American support in the next presidential election. And yet we cannot expect Russia to stand for this. Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has warned that a military strike on Iran would be a “very serious mistake” with “unpredictable consequences”, after Israel’s president Shimon Peres said that an attack was increasingly likely.

That the USA is standing by Israel and Russia by Iran is another indication that the prophecy of Ezekiel 38 is ready to come to pass.

Ezekiel 38:3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:

4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:

5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:

6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.

7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them. ( at the moment- Russia is indeed being a ‘guard’ in defending Iran’s actions)

8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.

9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.

10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:

11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,

12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?

Bible students recognise the USA as one of the young lions who make a seemingly ineffectual complaint when Gog makes his move. In that Day, Israel will effectively be alone and will call upon the Lord, Who will bring about the return of the Lord Jesus and that terrible ‘Day of the LORD’, when The LORDwill have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land.

Zechariah describes the time when The Lord appears to save Israel and it is then that they finally acknowledge that he is their Messiah.

Zech 12: 8 In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.

9 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn

This wonderful time when the Jews accept Jesus as their Messiah is described by Paul in Romans 11

25 .....blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

We should all do our best to ensure that the LORD has mercy on us in that day.